Turkey buries activist Aysenur Ezgi Eygi as Gaza war continues

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Israel's Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who is facing a possible arrest warrant from the ICC, will address the UN General Assembly on 27 September, according to Israeli reports.

The war leader will also visit the United States for a second visit since the war began, this time visiting New York.

Netanyahu flew to Washington in July to hold meetings with President Joe Biden, and also met with Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has been lobbying international allies to back a all-out war with Lebanon's Hezbollah, according to Hebrew media reports.

Broadcaster Kan reported that Netanyahu and defence minister Yoav Gallant are clashing over whether the army has the ability to continue the war in Gaza and open a larger front with Hezbollah.

The report said that Washington is hoping to delay a major war until after the US election on November 5 with Israel attempting to persuade allies that a conflict on the northern front is necessary to return the thousands of displaced Israelis.

A Hezbollah official said earlier on Saturday that the group did not want war with Israel, but would be nevertheless ready.

Foreign Minister Israel Katz called top EU diplomat Josep Borrell an "anti-Semite" and "Israel-hater" in a damming critique of the Spanish politician for his criticism of Israel's brutal war in Gaza.

In a post on X on Saturday, Katz claimed that Borrell is leading a "hate-filled campaign" against Israel and is aligned with the "Iranian axis of evil".

"There’s a difference between legitimate criticism and policy disagreements, which are normal among friends, and the anti-Semitic, hate-filled campaign Borrell is leading against Israel - reminiscent of history’s worst anti-Semites," Katz wrote.

Over the course of the war, Borrell has regularly called out Israel for the suffering of the 2.3 million Palestinians in Gaza who are facing displacement, disease, hunger and death. Borrell most recently said he was "outraged" by the killing of six UNRWA workers by an Israeli air strike on a school sheltering the displaced in Nuseirat in central Gaza.

.@JosepBorrellF is an anti-Semite and Israel-hater who consistently tries to pass resolutions and sanctions against Israel in the EU, only to be blocked by most member states.

There’s a difference between legitimate criticism and policy disagreements, which are normal among…

— ישראל כ”ץ Israel Katz (@Israel_katz) September 14, 2024

Hezbollah's second-in-command warned on Saturday that an all-out war by Israel aimed at returning 100,000 displaced people to their homes in areas near the Lebanon border would displace "hundreds of thousands" more.

Naim Qassem, number two in the Iran-backed Lebanese group, was speaking after Defence Minister Yoav Gallant said Israel was determined to restore security to its northern front.

Gallant told Israeli troops last week that "we are preparing for anything that may happen in the north".

In a speech in Beirut, Qassem said: "We have no intention of going to war, as we consider that this would not be useful.

"However, if Israel does unleash a war, we will face up to it -- and there will be large losses on both sides," he said.

"If they think such a war would allow the 100,000 displaced people to return home ... we issue this warning: prepare to deal with hundreds of thousands more displaced."

Lebanese media is reporting an Israeli drone strike in the southern town of Sarafand, some 60 kilometers down the coast from the capital Beirut.

The strike near the southern city of Saida is believed to have targeted a motorbike, with early reports indicating one person has been killed. No further details have been reported yet.

Israel has reportedly struck sites in Lebanon's north-eastern region of Hermel, according to the Lebanese state news agency.

The National News Agency reported that Israeli war planes raided the outskirts of the town of al-Kawakh in Hermel and on the Syria border town of Hawsh al-Sayyed Ali.

The region is not far from the city of Baalbek where Shia militant group Hezbollah is the local authority.

The strikes are some 140 kilometres from the Israeli border and follow multiple attacks on sites in the south throughout Saturday.

تغطية صحفية: على بعد 150 كيلو متراً عن الحدود مع فلسطين المحتلة.. طيران الاحتلال يشن غارات على بلدتي حوش السيد والكواخ قضاء الهرمل شمال شرق لبنان. pic.twitter.com/JItDCVil18

— شبكة قدس الإخبارية (@qudsn) September 14, 2024

At least 10 Palestinians were killed in an Israeli airstrike in Gaza on Saturday, Palestinian media reported, and the Israeli military said it targeted a Hamas commander.

The strike hit a residential housing unit in the Al Tuffah neighborhood east of Gaza City, according to the official Palestinian news agency Wafa.

The Israeli military said it "struck the commander of a Hamas terrorist cell ... who was involved in the planning and execution of terrorist activities."

It said it was aware of reports that several civilians were killed in the strike.

Two others were killed by Israeli shelling on Gaza City and Jabalia in the north, and three in al-Mawasi in the south, the report said. 

 (Reuters)

Thousands of Israelis have taken to the streets of Tel Aviv tonight calling on the government to secure a deal to release 100 captives held in Gaza as pressure on the Israel prime minister continues to rise.

Benjamin Netanyahu has been facing an increasingly irate Israeli public as he appears increasingly unable to prioritise the safe return of the captives who have been in Gaza for nearly a year. Anger erupted last month when the Israeli army found the bodies of six captives in a tunnel in south Gaza who appeared to have only recently died.

Tel Aviv has seen near-weekly protests against Netanyahu’s right-wing government who remain steadfast on pursing the conflict, despite growing international condemnation.

Aside from the protesters, there are still many Israelis who support the conflict against Hamas regard it as essential to guarantee their safety.

The Palestine Red Crescent Society said its crews "transported the remains of a martyr and an injured person" after they had been "targeted" in Beit Hanoun in north Gaza.

🚨Palestine Red Crescent teams transported the remains of a martyr and an injured person after they were targeted in the Sikka area of Beit Hanoun, northern #Gaza Strip.
📷Filmed by: volunteer Ali Abu Harbeed. pic.twitter.com/p2grjRSOPN

— PRCS (@PalestineRCS) September 14, 2024

Hezbollah announced the bombing of the Zibdin barracks, located in the Israeli-occupied Shebaa Farms, with artillery shells.

The Shebaa Farms is an Arab territory that belongs to either Lebanon or Syria.

A senior UN official said Saturday that teachers and other UN staff working in Gaza fear they are now targets after an Israeli airstrike hit a school-turned-shelter in the territory this week.

Wednesday's strike on the UN-run Al-Jawni School in central Gaza, which is housing displaced Palestinians, killed 18 people, including six employees of the United Nations agency for Palestinian refugees (UNRWA).

It was the deadliest single incident for the agency in more than 11 months of Israeli war on Gaza and drew international condemnation.

"One colleague said that they're not wearing the UNRWA vest anymore because they feel that that turns them into a target," UNRWA senior deputy director Sam Rose told AFP on Saturday after visiting the shelter in Nuseirat.

"Another one said that that morning, their children had stopped them from coming into the shelter," he said in an online interview from Gaza.

The colleagues were gathering for a post-work meal in a classroom when the strike flattened part of the building, leaving only a charred heap of rebar and concrete.

"A son of one of the staff had brought a meal into the building," Rose said, adding the group then debated whether to eat it in the principal's office before settling on what appeared to be a classroom decorated with pictures of scientists.

"They were eating when the bomb hit."

Chile has officially submitted a request to the International Court of Justice (ICJ) to participate in South Africa's ongoing legal proceedings against Israel, the court in The Hague announced on Friday.

In December, South Africa submitted a case against Israel, saying it had violated the Genocide Convention during its war on the Gaza Strip, which has so far killed at least 41,182 Palestinians and injured 95,280.

Chile is the latest country to signal its intention to become involved in the case, which was filed under Article 63 of the International Court of Justice (ICJ) Statute.

Under Article 63 of the International Court of Justice (ICJ) Statute, any state party to a convention being reviewed by the court has the right to intervene in the proceedings.

By exercising this right, the state's involvement ensures that the ICJ's interpretation of the convention becomes legally binding on them as well.

So far 13 countries in total have applied to join or declared their intention to join the South African case, including Turkey, Egypt, Spain, Belgium, and Nicaragua.

The United Arab Emirates is not prepared to support a post-war plan for Gaza without the establishment of a Palestinian state, Foreign Minister Abdullah bin Zayed Al Nahyan said on X on Saturday.

(Reuters)

Gaza civil defence authorities said one killed person and six injured were recovered after Israeli bombing of Shuhada Al-Zeitoun school in Gaza City.

Mourners gathered in southwest Turkey on Saturday for the funeral of a US-Turkish activist shot dead by Israeli forces while protesting illegal settlements in the occupied West Bank.

The killing last week of 26-year-old Aysenur Ezgi Eygi has sparked international condemnation and infuriated Turkey, further escalating tensions over the war on Gaza.

Eygi's body, wrapped in the Turkish flag and carried by uniformed officers, arrived at its final resting place in the Aegean town of Didim.

A picture of Eygi was placed near the coffin during the funeral at the local mosque.

A large crowd gathered during the prayers including Eygi's family, members of President Recep Tayyip Erdogan's Islamic-rooted AK Party, and activists advocating the Palestinian cause.

Protesters chanted slogans near the mosque showing their support for Palestinians.

Hezbollah said its fighters had destroyed spy equipment at the Hadb Yarin site, The New Arab's Arabic sister service Al-Araby Al-Jadeed reported.

The Palestinian Red Crescent said its crews received two people injured by live gunfire from Israeli forces at the Tarqumiyah checkpoint near Hebron in the south of the occupied West Bank.

One of the injured was hurt in the thigh, while the other was injured in the leg, according to the Red Crescent, which said they were being transferred to hospital.

Several Palestinians were killed and injured after Israeli bombing of a home in the Al-Maghazi refugee camp in central Gaza, The New Arab's Arabic sister service Al-Araby Al-Jadeed reported.

The Israeli army said it had detected two rockets launched from northern Gaza towards Asqalan (Ashkelon), one of which was intercepted, while the other fell into the sea.

Asqalan is a city located in Israel.

Hezbollah said it launched a drone attack on an Israeli military brigade's headquarters at the Maale Golani barracks.

The attack hit its target accurately, according to Hezbollah, which said the strike was in response to Israeli attacks in Lebanon, especially in the town of Kfar Remen.

The Hezbollah attack was the group's fourth today.

A new attempt has begun to try to salvage an oil tanker burning in the Red Sea after attacks by Yemen's Houthi rebels, a European Union naval mission said Saturday.

The EU's Operation Aspides published images dated Saturday of its vessels escorting ships heading to the Greek-flagged oil tanker Sounion.

The mission has "been actively involved in this complex endeavour, by creating a secure environment, which is necessary for the tugboats to conduct the towing operation", the EU said.

A phone number for the mission rang unanswered Saturday.

The Sounion came under attack from the Houthis beginning on 21 August.

The vessel had been staffed by a crew of 25 Filipinos and Russians, as well as four private security personnel, who were taken by a French destroyer to nearby Djibouti.

The Houthis later planted explosives aboard the ship and detonated them, which has led to fears the ship's one million barrels of crude oil could spill into the Red Sea.

The number of people killed in Israel's war on Gaza has risen to 41,182, according to the Palestinian enclave's health ministry.

The ministry says 95,280 people have been injured since the war began on 7 October.

It adds that Israel has carried out four "massacres against the families in the Gaza Strip" in the past 48 hours, with 64 killed people and 155 injured arriving at hospitals.

Rescue crews recovered the bodies of three people killed after Israeli air forces opened fire on them in the Al-Mawasi area in Rafah in southern Gaza, The New Arab's Arabic sister service Al-Araby Al-Jadeed reported.

Israeli forces arrested at least 10 people from the occupied West Bank on Friday and Saturday, the official Palestinian Commission of Detainees and Ex-Detainees Affairs and the Palestinian Prisoners Club advocacy group said in a press release.

The arrests took place across the Nablus, Ramallah, Tulkarem, and Hebron provinces and included former detainees.

The press release by the detainees' organisations said Israeli forces had arrested more than 10,700 people from the West Bank and Jerusalem since the start of the war on Gaza.

The Palestine Red Crescent Society (PRCS) said on Friday that it had worked with the social development ministry to distribute food parcels to 11,000 families in two provinces in northern Gaza.

The humanitarian group said on social media platform X that the supplies were given to families in the Gaza and North Gaza governorates.

"This effort aims to alleviate the ongoing suffering of citizens due to the worsening humanitarian situation in the northern part of the strip, caused by the shortage of food supplies as the Israeli occupation continues to block the entry of [humanitarian aid]," PRCS added.

The PRCS Disaster Risk Management teams, in cooperation with the Ministry of Social Development, distributed #food_parcels to 11,000 families in #Gaza and North Gaza governorates. This effort aims to alleviate the ongoing suffering of citizens due to the worsening humanitarian… pic.twitter.com/9u8kbdA1qd

— PRCS (@PalestineRCS) September 13, 2024

Israeli artillery repeatedly targeted several locations in Al-Maghazi refugee camp in central Gaza, The New Arab's Arabic sister service Al-Araby Al-Jadeed reported.

Five people were killed and others were wounded after Israeli bombing near Dar Al-Arqam school in northwest Gaza City, according to Palestinian civil defence authorities.

Mourners will gather in southwest Turkey Saturday for the funeral of a US-Turkish activist shot dead by Israeli forces while protesting illegal settlements in the occupied West Bank.

The killing last week of 26-year-old Aysenur Ezgi Eygi has sparked international condemnation and infuriated Turkey, further escalating tensions over the war on Gaza.

Eygi's body, wrapped in the Turkish flag, arrived at its final resting place in the Aegean town of Didim on Friday following a martyrs' ceremony at Istanbul's airport.

Eygi was a frequent visitor to the seaside resort.

The family wanted Eygi to be buried in Didim, where her grandfather lives and her grandmother has been laid to rest.

Ankara said this week it was probing her death and pressed the United Nations for an independent inquiry.

Turkey is also planning to issue international arrest warrants for those responsible for Eygi's death depending on the findings of its investigation.